[MUD: from
H. P. Lovecraft's evil fictional deity Shub-Niggurath, the Black
Goat with a Thousand Young] The harsh personification of the
Internet: Beast of a Thousand Processes, Eater of Characters,
Avatar of Line Noise, and Imp of Call Waiting; the hideous
multi-tendriled entity formed of all the manifold connections of
the net. A sect of MUDders worships Shub-Internet, sacrificing
objects and praying for good connections. To no avail -- its
purpose is malign and evil, and is the cause of all network
slowdown. Often heard as in "Freela casts a tac nuke at
Shub-Internet for slowing her down." (A forged response often
follows along the lines of: "Shub-Internet gulps down the tac nuke
and burps happily.") Also cursed by users of the Web, FTP
and telnet when the system slows down. The dread name of
Shub-Internet is seldom spoken aloud, as it is said that repeating
it three times will cause the being to wake, deep within its lair
beneath the Pentagon. Compare Random Number God.

[January 1996: It develops that one of the computer administrators
in the basement of the Pentagon read this entry and fell over
laughing. As a result, you too can now poke Shub-Internet by
pinging shub-internet.ims.disa.mil. See also
kremvax. --ESR]